Three years after the events of The Golem's Eye, the youngmagician Nathaniel is an established member of the BritishGovernment. But he faces unprecedented problems: foreign wars aregoing badly and Britain's enemies are mounting attacks close toLondon. Increasingly distracted, he is treating Bartimaeus worsethan ever: the long-suffering djinni is growing weak from too muchtime in this world, and his patience is at an end. Meanwhile,undercover in London, Kitty has been stealthily completing herresearch into magic and Bartimaeus' past. She hopes to break theendless cycle of conflict between djinn and humans - but will shebe able to get anyone to listen? Before any of these problems canbe resolved, disaster strikes London from an unexpected source andthe destinies of Bartimaeus, Nathaniel, and Kitty are throwntogether once more. They have to face treacherous magicians, along-fermented conspiracy, and an enemy from 'The Other Place' thatthreatens London and the world. Worst of all, they must somehowcope wit

In this instant New York Times Bestseller, Geoff Smart andRandy Street provide a simple, practical, and effective solution towhat The Economist calls “the single biggest problem in businesstoday”: unsuccessful hiring. The average hiring mistake costs acompany $1.5 million or more a year and countless wasted hours.This statistic becomes even more startling when you consider thatthe typical hiring success rate of managers is only 50percent. The silver lining is that “who” problems are easily preventable.Based on more than 1,300 hours of interviews with more than 20billionaires and 300 CEOs, Who presents Smart and Street’s A Methodfor Hiring. Refined through the largest research study of its kindever undertaken, the A Method stresses fundamental elements thatanyone can implement–and it has a 90 percent success rate. Whether you’re a member of a board of directors looking for a newCEO, the owner of a small business searching for the right peopleto make your company grow, or a pare

David Allen, 'the guru of personal productivity' (Fast CompanyMagazine) and author of the business bestseller GETTING THINGSDONE, inspires us to work better, not harder, in his new book,READY FOR ANYTHING. Offering over 50 productivity principles tohelp you clear your head and focus, READY FOR ANYTHING enables youto identify what drives you, what holds you back and how to beready for anything. With motivational insights and inspirationalquotes, READY FOR ANYTHING shows readers how to make things happenwith less effort, stress and inefficiency, and lots more energy,creativity and clarity. This is the perfect inspirational andmotivational book for anyone wanting to work and live at their verybest.

You can't ask for more than efficient, effective operations.Or can you? Given today's business landscape--increasing customerdemand, global competition, lower trade barriers--being good isn'tenough. This groundbreaking guide provides the knowledge and toolsyou need to transform your organization from a well-run company toa relentlessly innovative company. Innovation expert JeffreyPhillips has helped businesses around the world achieve thedream--the implementation of innovation as a consistent businessdiscipline. In Relentless Innovation, he reveals his secrets forthe first time. Phillips argues that today's typical businessmodels actually impede innovation because they place so much focuson efficiency, cost cutting, and short-term gain. Does thisdescribe your business model? If it does, you need to revisit yourapproach and redefine your idea of what success actually is. Youmay find that your "business as usual" processes actively rejectinnovation efforts. Relentless Innovation has everything you needto

The devaluation of the American dollar, with the subsequentinflation, iseerily similar to the chaotic markets of the 1970s.The factors that createdthe stagflation and the gold and silverbull markets of the late seventiesand early eighties are back. AsYogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all overagain." Only this time,they're even more exaggerated-offeringonce-in-a-lifetimeopportunities for middle-class Americans, if they lookbeyond theWall Street stock-market propaganda. This book can helpyoupanic-proof your life and your finances, and reap huge profitswithrelatively small investments in gold, silver, certain ETFs,mutual funds,and mining stocks.How to Prosper During the Coming BadYears in the 21st Century is amust-have survival and moneymakingguide for people who want to profit fromthe rough economic seasthat are upon us-and come through with their shareof treasure.--This text refers to the Kindle Edition.

Now in a striking new hardcover edition, Fooled by Randomnessis the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you thinkabout business and the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb–veteran trader,renowned risk expert, polymathic scholar, erudite raconteur, andNew York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan–has written amodern classic that turns on its head what we believe about luckand skill. This book is about luck–or more precisely, about how we perceiveand deal with luck in life and business. Set against the backdropof the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken forskill–the world of trading–Fooled by Randomness providescaptivating insight into one of the least understood factors in allour lives. Writing in an entertaining narrative style, the authortackles major intellectual issues related to the underestimation ofthe influence of happenstance on our lives. The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whomhave grasped, in their own way, the significance

Bestselling author Harvey Mackay reveals his techniques forthe most essential tool in business--networking, the indispensableart of building contacts. Now in paperback, Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty is HarveyMackay's last word on how to get what you want from the worldthrough networking. For everyone from the sales rep facing acareer-making deal to the entrepreneur in search of capital, DigYour Well explains how meeting these needs should be no more than afew calls away. This shrewdly practical book distills Mackay'swisdom gleaned from years of "swimming with sharks," including:

Rethink the Way You Think ? In hindsight, every great idea seems obvious. But how can you be the person who comes up with those ideas? In this revised and expanded edition of his groundbreaking Thinkertoys , creativity expert Michael Michalko reveals life-changing tools that will help you think like a genius. From the linear to the intuitive, this comprehensive handbook details ingenious creative-thinking techniques for approaching problems in unconventional ways. Through fun and thought-provoking exercises, you’ll learn how to create original ideas that will improve your personal life and your business life. Michalko’s techniques show you how to look at the same information as everyone else and see something different. ? With hundreds of hints, tricks, tips, tales, and puzzles, Thinkertoys will open your mind to a world of innovative solutions to everyday and not-so-everyday problems.,

Knowledge has become the most important factor in economiclife. It is the chief ingredient of what we buy and sell, the rawmaterial with which we work. Intellectual capital--not naturalresources, machinery, or even financial capital--has become the oneindispensable asset of corporations. Intellectual Capital is a groundbreaking book, visionaryin scope and practical in applications, that offers powerful newways of looking at what companies do and how to lead them. It isthe first book to show how to turn the untapped, unmapped knowledgeof an organization into its greatest competitive weapon. Intellectual Capital cuts through the vague rhetoric of"paradigm shifts" to show how the Information Age economy reallyworks--and how to make it work for you and your business. Readerswill learn how to discover and map the human, structural, andcustomer capital that embody the knowledge assets of a corporation;how successful companies manage their intellectual capital toimprove performance; how intellectual capital

Using a straightforward rational-choice approach, ProfessorRamseyerexplores the impact that law had on various markets inJapanese historyand the effect that those markets had on economicgrowth. In doing so,he applies an economic logic to markets in adifferent world in a differenthistorical period with a differentpolitical regime and a different legalsystem. He looks hardest atthose markets that have most often strucktraditional observers as"exploitative" (e.g., the markets for indenturedservants and forsexual services). Within those markets, he focuses on thewayparticipants handled informational asymmetries in thecontractingprocess. Ramseyer finds that Japanese courts generally definedimportant prop-erty rights clearly, and that Japanese marketsgenerally protected an indi-vidual's control over his or her ownlabor. As a result, that the Japaneseeconomy grew at relativelyefficient levels follows directly from standardeconomic theory. Healso concludes that the legal system usually pro-moted mutuallyadva

The Profit Zone, a Business Week Top Ten Book of the Year,examines 12 of today's great success stories--from GE toSwatch--and reveals how vital adaptations kept these companies onthe edge of the ever-changing profit zone. Charts graphsthroughout.

In Shift, Carlos Ghosn, the brilliant, audacious, and widelyadmired CEO of Nissan, recounts how he took the reins of the nearlybankrupt Japanese automotive company and achieved one of the mostremarkable turnarounds in automotive—and corporate—history. When Carlos Ghosn (pronounced like “phone”) was named COO ofNissan in 1999, the company was running out of gas and careeningtoward bankruptcy. Eighteen short months later, Nissan was back inthe black, and within several more years it had become the mostprofitable large automobile company in the world. In Shift, Ghosndescribes how he went about accomplishing the seemingly impossible,transforming Nissan once again into a powerful global automotivemanufacturer. The Brazilian-born, French-educated son of Lebanese parents,Ghosn first learned the management principles and practices thatwould shape his decisions at Nissan while rising through the ranksat Michelin and Renault. Upon his arrival at Nissan, Ghosn beganhis new position by embarkin